The latest news from the world of smartphones is that ZTE has launched the Blade ZMax, a budget phablet sporting a dual camera setup and fingerprint reader on the back for a steal price of $129, prepaid.
In the midst of all the hype surrounding major flagship device launches this year, ZTE is all set to silently capturing the budget phablets market by unveiling the Blade ZMax. The device is expected to hit store shelves on August 28.
ZTE, a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment company, is primarily into selling electronics products under its branding. It has made several Android smartphones and tablets, and is also an OEM, as well as one of the top five smartphone manufacturers in its home market. The company is known for releasing budget phablets packed with decent smartphone features such as larger screens and pretty good battery life.
A budget phone featuring decent hardware specs can easily be priced at $200 – $300 – something similar to Motorola’s Moto G5 Plus and Alcatel Idol 5S
But ZTE has priced the Blade ZMax for a much lower price of only $129, in the hope that they can capture the lower end of the mid-range market.
The device will sport a 6-inch display and is much slimmer than its predecessor despite its larger battery, which is 4,080mAh, promising 31 hours of usage time and up by 680 mAh from last year’s model. The device supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology for faster charging and will come with Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box. Data is processed by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 chipset running at 1.4 GHz, and the device has 2GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, expandable with microSD. Above all, there is a fingerprint sensor on the back as well, something that’s becoming somewhat of a trend in 2017.
Each year since 2014, the company has come up with some enhancements with every device it makes. This year the device will come with a dual camera – a pair of sensors on the back allowing the user to capture images by artificially blurring the background and highlighting the subject. The dual camera comprises a 16-megapixels RGB sensor and 2-megapixels monochrome sensor, and an 8MP front-facing selfie camera. Don’t expect the bokeh effect (depth of field) to be anywhere near iPhone 7 Plus, but for $129 this is a pretty good semblance of the real thing.
Overall, the new device is more rugged and aesthetic than its predecessor. It is clear that there are some compromises between the price tag and features, but for those of us who are willing to grab a decent phone featuring modern technology, the Blade ZMax from ZTE promises quite a bit.
Pre-registration is open through MetroPCS, and there is also a gift card of $25 from Google for those who register before August 27, and on producing the proof of purchase. Post registration, the phone can be purchased between August 28 and September 26.
The phone is a successor to the older ZTE Max family, according to the company. Going by the mixed reviews and feedback on the earlier devices – and with the few enhancements and killer price – we have to see how the market responds to the ZTE Blade ZMax.
Amazon is currently offering some great prices on older ZTE Max models:
ZTE Max XL 16GB Carrier Locked
ZTE Zmax 2 Z955A Factory Unlocked
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